[jasonl]

I am saying a marketing machine.... eg , a system to market your business in order to drive sales , is by far and away more important than this or that machine,chemical, van or other piece of equipment.  Lokk at CD when I started with them we were given a sebo vac, a cheap buffer, and some fizzy chemical, and a very low powered portable to clean upholstery with. BUT we had a great marketing machine, which drove the business forward.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

A friend of mine got into CC by having some leaflets done and posting them out and seeing what the response was, when he got a few bookings he put them all on one week and hired a machine made a few quid and then bought a machine and some more leaflets.

Shaun

[simonwonder]

thanks jasonl and all
not being a thicko but what sort of thing should i put on a leaflet to make it work
should i put a fixed price on it

[Shaun_Ashmore]

No prices, let them ring first unless you are planning to do 1970's prices at half price.

Shaun

[Matt Lindus]

JP knows that this type of business suffers from lack of customer demand and knows it is smothered with an endless supply of willing cleaners wanting to work.
He saw the massive demand for people to find work in this difficult trade and he capitalises on this to make himself a wealthy man. I don’t really think he could give a s**t how your getting on once your money has cleared into his bank, he has an endless conveyer of desperate people to milk money from.


Just my opinion.
     

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Nice post Matt.

I think that he does that American thing in that he makes you feel good about the system and yourself, don't forget anyone who does follow it to the letter does come out smelling of roses! anyone who doesn't always say it doesn't work.

Shaun

PS It's the free room I can't give away however hard I try.

[robert meldrum]

I'm sure some poor homeless soul would love your free room !

[Jim_77]

why the new account rob?!

[benny d]

Some of it is a load of TOSH . All of it is obviously so very American .(a clever observation eh fellas)
But remember ,...We are English over this side of the pond .(and Thank God for that too ) and therefore
most of Mr. Polishs ideas need to be anglosized .

If you were financially able to implement all of the stratagies you are advised  ,that is liable to cost you anything between at least £10 to £15,000-00. One of the ideas I take exception too is as follows .

Go out and do 10 quotes , quote in such a way as to only get the 2 highest quotes you make, because you dont want the "naff" ones who cant afford to pay the top money . In theory , BRILLIANT. I do not believe this works at all. It might , just might , if youve been in business for many years and have a possible larger base of clients .

A quote made on a business programme a couple of weeks ago on T.V. was, and I quote all most  word for word was ,.."Always in sales you have got to be hunting for every penny , you are always chasing the big one , but you must always take all of the crumbs off of the table "
Quote ,John Caudwell multi-billionaire ,who sold"Phones4U for almost one and a half billion pounds .

Ben,s Dad Sammy

[clinton]

 

[simonwonder]

thanks for all your input and advise  does anyone have a template for a flyer to give me some ideas for my marketing
thanks again
simon

[PaulKing]

hey i can't comment i just realized it was joe polish as in polish your shoes,
 and not joe polish as polish builders.
think it works for some and not others good luck either way

[Mike Osbourne]

Well you take what you think you can work with, see how it goes and adjust as necessary.

Here's just one example

Leave a suggestion box with your local carpet retailer. Put a competition on there for a free carpet clean. Get them to fill out a form with all their details on.

You do a free clean and all the others you write/email about your services.

First time I did it f****ing distater ended up cleaning and only 8 responses.

Now could have given up there but, changed info on the box, resited it and got the retailer to plug it more because I send out stuff for him included with my stuff.

Now this is working a treat month in month out and OK not everyone goes for it, but they are on the email list from then on.

Or is that too American for you?

[robert meldrum]

Jim

The board wants our names and mine is not Carlton, it's my wifes maiden name and our main trading name. Photo? don't think so, I'm camera shy.  

Just noticed Benny's incedible comment " We are English over this side of the pond"

You might be Benny, but there are about 10 million in the UK who are not English and have no problem with our American cousins.

Carpet cleaning has a lot to thank the US for.

[simonwonder]

thanks mike
i'll try that as i currently clean windows for a carpet retailer

[benny d]

Mr. Meldrum,

The point I was making is that J/Ps, idea,s are very americanized and alot of them needed to be altered for the English market .This was told to us when we were on the course . I would expect you to agee to that . Yes?.

I do not have any problem with the Americans and for you to suggest that is, in my opinion, completly idiotic . Over many years the Americans have earnt a lot of money out of me but, and there is always a but, I have earnt a lot more out of them !

Yor statement that "Carpet Cleaners have got a lot to thank the Americans for " leads me to ask,

Did you mean Carpet Cleaners or Carpet Bombing ?


Just Joshing you , son !!

[Mike Osbourne]

It's a well known fact that probably less than 10% of all the training products bought ever get  implemented.

That's NOT JP's fault.

In fact, all these guys want to suck you in to ongoing programmes. The only way they get people to do this is if they see some success with the material that's bought.

These guys also have to give a huge amount of information away to get you interested. Even reading one of his websites is an education on how to suck people in.

 It's all down to whether you can be arsed to use it, test it and tweak it until it starts working for you and most people just give up far too soon.